Written Answers Tuesday 18 October 2005

Scottish Executive

Asylum Seekers

Patrick Harvie (Glasgow) (Green): To ask the Scottish Executive when it will begin work on its protocol with the Home Office on the removal of asylum seekers.

Robert Brown: Work has already begun. Meetings have already taken place between officials from the Executive and the Home Office and further work on the protocol is being taken forward as a matter of urgency.

Asylum Seekers

Patrick Harvie (Glasgow) (Green): To ask the Scottish Executive when it expects to complete work on its protocol with the Home Office on the removal of asylum seekers.

Robert Brown: Discussions with the Home Office are at an early stage. Work will be completed as quickly as possible.

Asylum Seekers

Patrick Harvie (Glasgow) (Green): To ask the Scottish Executive which ministers will lead negotiations with the Home Office in respect of the protocol on the removal of asylum seekers.

Robert Brown: The Minister for Education and Young People is taking the lead, with support from the Minister for Communities and from me.

Bridges

Mr David Davidson (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-18594 by Tavish Scott on 15 September 2005, what action it will take to alleviate pressure on the Forth Road Bridge.

Tavish Scott: Responsibility for the operation of the Forth Road Bridge is a matter for the Forth Estuary Transport Authority (FETA) in the first instance. The Executive is working closely with FETA and other stakeholders to address access and congestion issues associated with the bridge. The Executive has made contributions to initiatives such as the expansion of Ferry Toll Park and Ride and the improvement of rail services across the Forth, and is underwriting the upgrading of the A8000.

Bridges

Mr David Davidson (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-18594 by Tavish Scott on 15 September 2005, when it envisages that a replacement for the Forth Road Bridge will be required.

Tavish Scott: The operation and management of the Forth Road Bridge, including any assessment of when, or whether a replacement crossing would be required, is a matter for the Forth Estuary Transport Authority (FETA) in the first instance. Ministers have previously made it clear that we will consider any proposals brought forward.

Child Welfare

Patrick Harvie (Glasgow) (Green): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is bound by the terms of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Robert Brown: The United Kingdom is bound, as a matter of international law, by the terms of the Convention. The Convention has not been incorporated into Scots or English law so it does not have direct effect in domestic law. However, the Executive seeks to reflect the aims of the Convention in our policies and legislation wherever possible.

  There is no international court to enforce the Convention but, in accordance with the provisions of the Convention, the UK submits periodic reports to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child which are the subject of formal examination. These reports include Scotland.When the UK Government ratified the Convention, it entered a number of reservations, including one on immigration and citizenship in which it reserved the right to apply relevant domestic legislation to ensure effective immigration controls.

Equal Opportunities

Ms Sandra White (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it supports the call by the Equal Opportunities Commission in its report, Britain’s Hidden Brain Drain , for all major economic proposals to include an equality impact assessment.

Malcolm Chisholm: The Executive welcomes this report from the Equal Opportunities Commission. The Equality Bill currently at Westminster will introduce a Gender Duty on public bodies. Whilst the precise form and scope of the duty has yet to be decided, (a consultation was launched on October 4 2005 and will run until January 12 2006) it is expected to include a requirement for key public authorities, including the Executive, to conduct and publish a gender impact assessment, covering all major proposed developments in employment/policy/services. A duty to assess policies for their impact on race is already in place and a duty to promote equality of opportunity for disabled people will come into effect from December 2006. The Executive is currently working on appropriate tools and guidance which will enable equality impact assessments to be conducted across all of the six equality strands.

Equal Opportunities

Ms Sandra White (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to develop a National Family Strategy for Scotland, as referred to in the Equal Opportunities Commission’s report, Britain’s Hidden Brain Drain .

Robert Brown: The Equal Opportunities Commission’s proposal deals mainly with reserved matters such as flexible working, paid parental leave and pension issues. The Executive is working strategically across a wide range of policy areas to improve support for Scotland’s parents, children and families.

Fisheries

John Farquhar Munro (Ross, Skye and Inverness West) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Scottish Executive Inquiry Reporters Unit recommended that the Crown Estate Commission approves the application for the Annat Bay fish farm contrary to the decision taken by Highland Council and, if so, what the reasons were for this recommendation.

Malcolm Chisholm: I can confirm that on 11 August 2005 an Inquiry Reporter undertook a site inspection into proposals to establish a finfish farm at Annat Bay, near Ullapool and subsequently provided a report to the Crown Estate Commissioners. This was carried out under the Interim Scheme for the Authorisation of Marine Fish Farms in Scottish Waters which is administered by the Crown Estate and under which an applicant who is unhappy with the initial decision of the Crown Estate can request the proposal be referred to the Scottish Executive Inquiry Reporters Unit, who appoint an inquiry reporter for this purpose. I understand that in this case the Crown Estate have circulated the report to statutory consultees prior to reaching a decision. Once the reporter’s recommendation is received it is for the Crown Estate, as relevant authority under the Environmental Impact Assessment (Fish Farming in Marine Waters) Regulations 1999,  and competent authority under the Conservation (Natural Habitats, &c.) Amendment (Scotland) Regulations 2004, to decide on the suitability of the proposals. Questions about the content of the report should be addressed to the Crown Estate Commissioners.

Foster Care

John Swinburne (Central Scotland) (SSCUP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-19005 by Robert Brown on 20 September 2005, what impact the additional £12 million in funding will have on kinship carers who do not currently receive any payment in areas such as Glasgow.

Robert Brown: It is for local authorities to decide how best to use this additional funding. However, when Euan Robson wrote to local authorities announcing the funding in April, he suggested that authorities may wish to consider further support to kinship carers.

Gaelic

Rob Gibson (Highlands and Islands) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what different types and amounts of funding it provides for the support and promotion of Gaelic.

Peter Peacock: The Scottish Executive provides revenue funding for specific Gaelic programmes. Expenditure on these programmes is set to rise by 16% next year and is shown in the following table.

  

Gaelic Programmes
2005-06
(£ Million)
2006-07
(£ Million)


Gaelic Education
4.0
4.4


Gaelic Broadcasting
8.5
8.7


Bòrd na Gàidhlig
2.8
4.7


Total
15.3
17.8



  In addition, the Scottish Executive provides significant levels of capital and revenue support for Gaelic development through its general expenditure programmes, including provision for local authorities and other Scottish public bodies. The Gaelic spend in these programmes is not separately identified.

Hepatitis C

Shona Robison (Dundee East) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-17550 by Elish Angiolini QC on 21 July 2005, how many of the deaths from hepatitis where the type was not specified were attributed to receiving infected blood or blood products through the NHS.

Elish Angiolini QC: I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-19692 on 17 October 2005. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search .

Land

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what action will be taken to enhance sustainable development by "dealing with vacant and derelict land", as outlined on page 115 of the Draft Budget 2006-07.

Malcolm Chisholm: Scottish planning policy promotes the re-use of vacant and derelict land and buildings, including brownfield sites. The Executive provides funding through the Vacant and Derelict Land Fund, aimed at bringing long-term vacant and derelict land back into use thereby reducing the pressure on the use of Greenfield land and ensuring a more sustainable approach to development. £24.3 million has been allocated to the Vacant and Derelict Land Fund for the years 2006-07 and 2007-08.

  £20 million of capital resources has also been made available to local authorities over the same period to enable them to carry out identification and remediation of contaminated land. A further £10.7 million of End-Year Flexibility funding was issued to 19 local authorities in December 2004 for specific projects aimed at cleaning up derelict and contaminated land that is causing public health risks or blighting local communities.

Language Training

Mrs Margaret Ewing (Moray) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to encourage Scots, in particular schoolchildren, to learn a second language.

Peter Peacock: In A Partnership for A Better Scotland  we guaranteed every pupil the opportunity to learn a modern European language starting in the primary school. A recent evaluation of languages provision in Scotland by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education shows that we are well on target for meeting this commitment with 98% of primary 7 pupils learning a modern language. The report, http://www.hmie.gov.uk/documents/publication/hmiecoaml.pdf , includes detailed information on Scottish Executive support for languages.

  Since 2001, we have provided education authorities with £18.5 million to support languages learning and teaching. This money has been used in a range of ways to improve languages provision in schools and to make it a more attractive subject to pupils.

Language Training

Mrs Margaret Ewing (Moray) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has set any targets for Scotland’s population to speak a second language.

Peter Peacock: The Scottish Executive has guaranteed every school pupil the opportunity to learn a modern European language starting in the primary school: and aims to increase the number of pupils in Gaelic-medium primary education by 20% between 2005 and 2009. The Executive has set no targets for the adult population.

Language Training

Mrs Margaret Ewing (Moray) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has carried out a study to ascertain the percentage of Scots who can speak a second language; if so, what the results were and, if not, whether it will do so.

Peter Peacock: The Scottish Executive is committed to language learning in schools, to increasing the number of Gaelic speakers and to encouraging linguistic diversity in Scotland. Whilst the 2001 Census collected data on Gaelic speakers, the Executive has not carried out a study to ascertain the percentage of Scots who can speak a second language.

  The European Commission recently outlined plans for a "European indicator of language competence" which would survey pupils at age 15. The Executive has no current plans to conduct a wider survey.

Language Training

Mrs Margaret Ewing (Moray) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the financial benefits to Scotland are of having more citizens who have bilingual or multilingual skills.

Peter Peacock: No specific research has been carried out by the Scottish Executive on the financial benefits of having more citizens who have bilingual or multilingual skills. However, the report Talking World Class: The Impact of Languages Skills on the UK Economy , published by the UK Centre for Information on Languages Teaching (CILT) in July 2005, highlights the importance of language skills in supporting international trade, attracting inward investment, boosting tourism and improving the quality of the UK services industry.

  In addition, the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) survey on Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education in 2003 shows an unemployment rate of 5.9% for languages graduates six months after graduating, compared with an average of 7.1% across all subjects.

Ministerial Correspondence

Mr John Swinney (North Tayside) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive when it will respond to my letters of 13 September 2005 to the Permanent Secretary and the Minister for Justice.

Ms Margaret Curran: The Minister for Justice replied on 3 October 2005, following which the Permanent Secretary wrote on 10 October 2005.

NHS Staff

Stewart Stevenson (Banff and Buchan) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what mechanisms are in place to ensure that the number of new graduates in (a) medicine, (b) nursing, (c) midwifery and (d) physiotherapy is matched by the number of junior posts for each category.

Mr Andy Kerr: The National Workforce Planning Framework, published in August 2005, sets out the action required at national, regional, and board levels to effectively plan for future staffing developments. The planning framework operates within the context of Building a Health Service for the Future and will provide bottom up evidence about demand that has not yet been captured. This will allow us to make decisions on training numbers which effectively align supply with future demand, and to join up and build on existing stand alone workforce planning systems such as the Student Nurse Intake Planning Exercise.

Roads

Richard Lochhead (North East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how much compensation was paid to landowners by it in each of the last three years, broken down by reason for compensation where appropriate, such as that arising from the building and improvement of the trunk road network, and showing year-on-year percentage increases.

Richard Lochhead (North East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how much compensation was paid to landowners by local authorities in each of the last three years, broken down by reason for compensation where appropriate, such as that arising from the building and improvement of the road network, and showing year-on-year percentage increases.

Tavish Scott: This information is not held centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

Telecommunications

Mrs Margaret Ewing (Moray) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many appeals have been lodged with it against the erection of TETRA masts; how many were lodged by (a) individuals, (b) communities and (c) local authorities, and how many in each category were successful.

Malcolm Chisholm: Statistics of the kind requested are not held. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, planning permission is required for the physical form of development proposed (such as a mast or antenna) rather than for the network or telecommunications system (such as TETRA) which it is intended to serve. Secondly, appeals are lodged by applicants, normally against refusal of permission. There is no provision for appeals to be made by individuals, communities or local authorities against the erection of masts or any other development granted permission by a planning authority, though it is open to individuals and communities to object to such proposals before the decision is taken.

  If the question is intended to refer to objections to planning appeals, a check of planning appeals lodged since 2001 has found no references to TETRA in the description of the development for which planning permission was sought. The explanation for this is that, for the reason indicated above, the description of development is required to relate to the physical form of the development proposed.